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Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro!

Cinco de Mayo is coming up this weekend, and if you’re making any kind of Mexican dinner to celebrate I want to remind you about this Low-Carb Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro that‘s absolutely perfect for a low-carb side dish for Mexican food. I’m not sure I could ever pick my number one favorite salad recipe, but Spicy Mexican Slaw is a salad I’ve been crazy over for years.

This recipe has so many of my favorite ingredients that when I first tried the salad (in 2008!) after one bite I knew I’d be making it over and over again. Since then this has become a regular offering for family parties and wedding showers, with one bowl with cilantro and another bowl for the cilantro-haters with lots of thinly sliced green onion replacing the cilantro. And I always use plenty of Green Tabasco Sauce for a spicy kick, although any hot sauce you like can be used. If you like cabbage salads at all, I urge you to try this salad; I bet you’ll love it just as much as I do.

How to Make Low-Carb Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro:

(Scroll Down for complete printable recipe.)

Whisk together the mayo, lime juice, and hot sauce to make the dressing. (Start with smaller amounts of lime juice and hot sauce and taste it until it seems perfect to you.)

Thinly slice the green and red cabbage. (This is easiest and you’ll get best results with a mandoline slicer (affiliate link).

Chop green onions and cilantro and mix with the cabbage, then stir in just enough dressing to moisten the slaw.

This is best freshly made, but I’ve eaten leftovers for breakfast many times after they’d been in the fridge overnight, not minding at all that the red cabbage turns the salad pink when it sits. And I wouldn’t mind a bit having this in the fridge for a quick lunch!

Weekend Food Prep:

This recipe has been added to a new category called Weekend Food Prep to help you find recipes you can prep or cook on the weekend and eat during the week! If you want to make this for Weekend Food Prep, you can store the leftover cabbage and dressing separately and add dressing to each serving right before you eat it.

Low-Carb Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro

Yield6 servings

Prep Time20 minutes

Total Time20 minutes

This Low-Carb Spicy Mexican Slaw is a salad that I make all the time, and I think this is a perfect side dish.

Ingredients

Salad Ingredients

4 cups thinly sliced green cabbage

2 cups thinly sliced red cabbage (You can use all green or all red cabbage.)

2 green onions, thinly sliced, or more

1/2 cup chopped cilantro, or more (If you’re not a cilantro fan just use more green onion.)

Dressing Ingredients

4 T mayo (or a little more if you like your salad with lots of dressing)

3 T fresh lime juice; more or less to taste (see notes)

1/2 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste (See notes.)

salt to taste (I used Vege-Sal which I greatly prefer over regular salt for this salad.)

Instructions

In small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together, mayo, lime juice, and hot sauce. (Start with less than the full amount of lime juice and hot sauce and keep adding until you have the desired blend of sour/hot flavor.)

Wash, dry and chop cilantro. (I use a Mini salad spinner to wash herbs and spin them dry.)

Combine cabbage, green onions and cilantro in large salad bowl.

Use a wooden spoon to mix dressing into cabbage mixture.

Season to taste with salt or Vege-Sal (affiliate link) and serve immediately, or chill for a few hours.

This salad will keep well overnight in the refrigerator, but the lime juice will cause the red cabbage to bleed color and turn the salad slightly pink. If you’re making extra you might want to use all green cabbage, although I didn’t mind the pink color at all when I ate the leftovers!

Another good strategy if you’re not cooking for many people is to chop the cabbage and green onion and mix the dressing for the full amount and store in the fridge, then chop cilantro and stir salad together in smaller amounts as you’re going to eat it.

Notes

If you’re not crazy about sour and hot flavors, start with a smaller amount of lime and hot sauce and add more to the dressing until it tastes good to you. I like this best with Green Tabasco Sauce (affiliate link), but I’ve made it with Sriracha Sauce (affiliate link) many times. Any hot sauce will work, but hot sauce that’s orange will turn the cabbage pink if it’s refrigerated overnight.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This Low-Carb Spicy Mexican Slaw with Lime and Cilantro is a perfect side dish for most any low-carb eating plans, including any phase of the South Beach Diet, and it’s also gluten-free, meatless, vegan, and can be Paleo or Whole 30 with approved mayo and hot sauce. South Beach would prefer low-fat mayo; other low-carb diets would prefer full-fat, so take your choice on that.

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